Night never rose today
Seal grey fog stayed leaden stable.
No substance makes no shadow.
Dank medieval fenland
Hereward awoke querulous
looked out and went back to bed.
All was wail and screech in the marsh,
water-coloured pitch dispersed
left smudges on green mantles
invisible coded inkstains
lit by enfeebled
disconsolate torch fires
floodlit groaning Ely
hill fort candlemas
*
Obese prose gets up my nose.
Tired mired strife.
Ilex waxes lyrical.
Auric mistletoe glisters.
Golden branches hang heavy
sporting strange distended fruit.
The crooked bishop dangles.
A burdensome encumbrance
takes his final bough
opaque gelid mist
dead souls stumble homeward bound
old grey thistle vest
The last man in space
double locked the shuttlecock
in case of burglars
looked up dreamily
blew farewell kisses to the
cerulean canopy
Sudden catharsis
Rooted to the spot
Catatonic subverters
Absent sense of direction
Can’t find my way out
Trial an error live and learn
Back to the drawing board
Fresh pens & pencils
Kitchen utensils
The galley slave goes to it
Cooking up a storm
When gargantuan
Exquisite imaginations
Once went to work on
A polythene egg
In a bubble car
There was a big bang
The rest is pre-history
Radio Rotten Plays
Anarchy in the UK
Listen with Mother
To the World at One declare
The war is over
For the Unknown Soldier
So DNA traces reveal
Burnt offerings for the dog.
Still scrapless after all those ears.
Scavenged some roasted remnants.
There’s beans & fish ready to go.
Where’s the promised salad?
East of Neasden.
Abnormal service is exhumed.
*
Ate salmon, herbs, spuds, and runners.
Kitchen utilities roar as afternoon arrives:
‘Good Afternoon!’, it says
Still deep in morning,
I yawned a knowing smile,
returned a nod of greeting,
while slyly raising a hand
to hide the unswallowed fish head
I was sucking on.
*
Afternoon stayed for a coffee and left
to finish the rounds
in time for evensong.
Take the scenic route
off the beaten track
the path less trodden
which way wherever
hang a left at the gibbet
& carry on rolling up
the road into one
neat spiral cylinder
ready for oncoming
vagabonds & traffickers
gormless stranded waysiders
gawping as I ride on by
Swept threadbare flimsy
Flakey faded Nepalese
Hand woven carpet
Once bold vibrant crimson
Scuffed trampled bare by
Indwellers interlopers
Casual and meaningful
Professional rucks
Transgressional muck
Careless and caring acquaintances
Dogs living and dead
Occasional wayward chooks
Cops, yobs, swabs, blobs, mobs
Tawdry transcendent
Embedded ephemera
windblown through the door
Grimbeau 